


Who Are So Free As The Child Of The Waves

by redtailedhawk90



Category: The Room Where It Happened (Podcast)
Genre: (or whatever it's called when you WRITE a song for a fic), Gen, Rated T for Molly being lewd, S2: The Bleed, Songfic, space shanties, this was really just an excuse to rewrite some sea shanties okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 10:21:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29133966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redtailedhawk90/pseuds/redtailedhawk90
Summary: A collection of space shanties, as sung by the crew of the Wyvern.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4
Collections: Secret Druids of the Stones 2020 (A Standing Stones Fanwork Exchange)





	Who Are So Free As The Child Of The Waves

It's a work song, Sam explains to WINTER when they ask, a shanty. He wipes his forehead with the back of his hand and leans on his axe.

“You use it to boost morale and keep time during rhythmic work,” he says. “It helps the day to go by faster.” At WINTER’s (•ิ_•ิ)? face, Sam chuckles. “Not _literally,_ WINTER. Psychologically. Time _seems_ to go by faster than it is.”

“Oh, I see,” WINTER says, not seeing at all. Sam laughs.

He picks up the song where he left off, swinging his axe at the logs he’s splitting in time to the music.

[to the tune of _[South Australia](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDjOAsxeokw)_ ]

Ten years’ past, pinch’d by the brass.  
Swing it down! Strike it down!  
We mine that gas ‘cause they own our ass  
Here on Big Rock Candy Moun-tain!  
  
Swing it down, we earn the Baron’s gold.  
Swing it down! Strike it down!  
Hammer down, just do as you are told  
Here on Big Rock Candy Moun-tain!

* * *

WINTER pays more attention, after that, and it turns out that everyone on the Wyvern seems to have their own version of a shanty, too. They realize that Molly sings them when she exercises, punctuating each pump of the barbell with a verse. Just like Sam with his log-splitting, the rhythm of the song kept her pace even. The subject matter was a little more confusing, though.

[to the tune of [_Blow, Boys, Blow_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjy_4dAKhjE)]

She spread her legs for all to see her   
Slow, lover, slow   
An’ ev’ry bloke was glad to meet her   
Slow, my lover dear, slow

She kissed me fast, she kissed me well   
Slow, lover, slow   
Quick to put the devil into hell   
Slow, my lover dear, slow

(“What does ‘put the devil into hell’ mean,” WINTER asks Molly. Molly nearly jumps out of her skin, unaware she was being watched. 

“Uh, well. It’s slang for sex, WINTER,” Molly says, blushing faintly. “You know what sex is, right?”)

(WINTER has access to the internet. And besides, they live on a ship with  _ Molly,  _ for goodness sake. They know what sex is.)

* * *

WINTER recognizes the particular thumping cadence in some of the songs Kerry sings in bars, too, but there are others that Kerry only seems to voice when they're cleaning their guns. They don’t stop when WINTER pokes their head in, although their voice gets quieter, the words harder to pick out.

[in the style of [_Leave Her, Johnny_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fow61Zsn2s)]

Oh, we’re overrun and the Rickies know.  
Steady, soldiers, steady  
So you’ve got to keep your heartbeat slow  
To keep yer gun arm steady!

There’s starlight off the starboard bow  
Steady, soldiers, steady  
And the sun’s come over Hazard now  
So keep yer gun arm steady!

Steady, soldier, steady! Oh!  
Steady, soldier, steady!  
For the Rickies come and you’re in their sights  
So keep yer gun arm steady!

* * *

Owain's are different. They sing the shanties sometimes, when they're repairing the Wyvern with WINTER. But there are others, when everyone else is asleep in the long slow hours of the morning, that WINTER can sometimes hear them sing. Owain should probably be asleep, too, but when WINTER creeps up to the cockpit, looking for the source of the sound, they are at the console, leaned back in their chair with the viewscreen pulled up. The camera is pointed Core-ways; the sun glimmers distantly in the center of the screen. 

[to the tune of [_Crossing the Bar_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pck6AplSqao)]

Lost in the black of space  
My ship calls to me  
And in her hull my soul I did misplace  
In the war out in the Bleed

In the war out in the Bleed  
In the war out in the Bleed  
And in her hull my soul I did misplace  
In the war out in the Bleed

They told me honor prospers in a fight  
And grows with each foe killed  
Why then does darkness replace the light?  
Was it drowned in the blood I spilled?  
  
Was it drowned in the blood I spilled?  
Was it drowned in the blood I spilled?  
Why then does darkness replace the light?  
Was it drowned in the blood I spilled?

(WINTER does not announce their presence. They have a feeling Owain would not want to be observed, here. So instead they move away, and when they circle back later to find Owain asleep at the console, they find a blanket to throw over them and a pillow to put under their head.)


End file.
